Setting up an online fundraising page

Personalise your page with information on who you are doing it for, how you are doing it and why you are doing it.

Who: Is this for someone special, perhaps you are setting up a tribute page? If so, write about them, add lots of photos and explain what this person means/meant to you.

How: What are you doing? Write about your challenge and how difficult a challenge it might be for you. Tell your story.

Why: Explain a bit about Breathing Matters and why you chose to support this charity, and what it means to you to help us in our commitment to find a cure and better treatments for pulmonary fibrosis and lung infections.

Add a target total.

People will be much more inclined to help with your fundraising if they know your story and what this means to you, and how much you want to raise.

Spread the Word

Use social media to publicise your fundraising. You can use email, facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, email, YouTube, blogs and texts. Every share is worth a £5 donation.

Email your friends, family, work colleagues and perhaps members from your health club or other hobbies you may have with your fundraising page address and tell them why you would like their support. Use an exciting subject title to grab their interest. Don’t use words like ‘free’ or ‘exciting’ as this might get lost in spam folders. Share your passion and explain your motivation for your challenge.

Put regular updates on your facebook page and regularly tweet your challenge. Follow Breathing Matters on @breathingmatter and like us on https://www.facebook.com/BreathingMatters and we can retweet and share these. You can also retweet our tweets which will help explain why you and your contacts are supporting us.

Ask that your emails and social media posts and tweets are forwarded on.

Tip: Ask someone you know will be generous to be your first sponsor – others will see the amount and be encouraged to match it!

Tip: Make sure you have a photo of you smiling on your fundraising page.

You can set up a TextGiving code from your Justgiving page very easily. Email your code and a suggested amount to donate; it’s very quick and efficient!

Be honest in your social media messages; tell your supporters if it is hard, tell us if something funny happened. Tell us if you have cried or laughed. Your supporters will share your pain and the laughter with you.

To keep people visiting your page, make regular updates to your page and email your contacts to let them know there are new things to see. People who have already sponsored you will be interested and it is a polite reminder to those who have not had time to donate.

Keep people updated with your fundraising tally and ask for their help to reach your target … or smash through it!

Think about when you send out emails – people tend to be more generous around payday!

Ask your employer for a donation. Some of our fundraisers have had their totals matched by their workplace.

Contact the local press to see if they can help advertise your event.

After the Event

Strike while the iron is hot. People still like todonate after the event, so remember to update your page with photos of the day and email/tweet/facebook thanking those who have supported you and asking those who haven’t to do so now to help you reach or surpass your target. A large amount of money is raised after an event – in fact 20% – so it is an important part of fundraising.

When your fundraising page has closed and you have your final total, thank your supporters again and tell them what they have helped with. Perhaps include a thank you message from Breathing Matters …. remember, you may do another challenge and you want them on your side next time too!

Breathing Matters are very excited to announce a joint partnership with Clothes for Charity.

Recycling clothes or giving them to charity is a kind, selfless gesture that can help raise vital funds. But it can also be a bit of a hassle. Our supporters have contacted us to ask where they can donate clothes for us. Breathing Matters does not have charity outlets where you can donate and, up until now, we had no method that you could donate in this way.

Clothes for Charity provide a secure, trackable way to donate clothes online. All you have to do is register, nominate Breathing Matters as your charity, request a donation bag and arrange a collection from a place that suits you. Clothes for Charity will email you to let you know your clothes arrived safely. And best of all, while most clothes collection schemes only give £70 per tonne to a charity, Clothes for Charity will give £200 to Breathing Matters.